The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is one of the most perks-rich business cards out there, though unfortunately one of the unique features of the card has been cut as of January 2020.
Amex Business Platinum Lost Gogo Wi-Fi Passes
Historically the Amex Business Platinum offered 10 Gogo Wi-Fi passes per year. Each was valid for a flight on a Gogo equipped plane, and for many people this is a great alternative to outright buying a Gogo membership.
As of January 1, 2020, the Amex Business Platinum will no longer offer any Gogo Wi-Fi passes. This has been communicated in the statements to cardmembers.
Card members could continue to register through then, though note that Gogo will remove all passes from accounts as of the beginning of the following year.
American Express and Gogo launched this benefit back in 2014. I would imagine that for many of these Amex partnerships, they’re in fact paying a fraction of face value. The intent is for these partnerships to be mutually beneficial, though as is the case with any business, goals change over time.
While I have no inside info here, my guess is that Gogo just wasn’t seeing the upside to this — they were probably selling the passes to Amex at a huge discount, and decided that they were cannibalizing their own business by doing so.
Bottom Line
I’m sad to see Amex drop the Gogo Wi-Fi passes on the Business Platinum Card. Ultimately benefits come and go, and I do hope they introduce something new, especially given that we’ve seen the annual fees on these cards increase in recent years. In the meantime, there are several other ways to save on inflight Wi-Fi purchases.
Will this benefit change impact whether or not you keep the Amex Business Platinum?
(Tip of the hat to View from the Wing)
Amex is losing value every year. I signed up for several cards due to their offerings but all of them have lost a lot of them now these cards are damn near useless beside being a credit card.
They took away the wifi passes, priority pass removed the restaurant credit, can't use anymore GC's for airline credit when you fly first or business, you don't need upgrade, food/drink, or any other thing that they charge...
Amex is losing value every year. I signed up for several cards due to their offerings but all of them have lost a lot of them now these cards are damn near useless beside being a credit card.
They took away the wifi passes, priority pass removed the restaurant credit, can't use anymore GC's for airline credit when you fly first or business, you don't need upgrade, food/drink, or any other thing that they charge for because it all comes with the ticket.
WeWork credit will expire June I believe after that I really don't know what the card is really good for? Their travel is nothing more than Expedia rates and is tagged as such with the hotels. The points you earn and can redeem, I am not too sure how much of a value prop that is.
$600 a year that was all the value.
@JW The personal card does all that and it cost $45 less and has more credits now....
@JW
Figure $50 / per visit. I put it closer to $10, maybe $20 if you can use the showers.
You value that way too high. For the same $50 I can get a much better experience else where. Unless you down 10 alcoholic drink every visit and eat food like Vegas buffet that last you the whole day, I can't see why is it worth $50.
I agree that AMEX is devaluing its...
@JW
Figure $50 / per visit. I put it closer to $10, maybe $20 if you can use the showers.
You value that way too high. For the same $50 I can get a much better experience else where. Unless you down 10 alcoholic drink every visit and eat food like Vegas buffet that last you the whole day, I can't see why is it worth $50.
I agree that AMEX is devaluing its card too much recently. My old SPG business looks awful compare to before with a higher annual fee. Taking Boingo away from that really made it trash. I just wish I could swap it with Chase or even the personal card. I'm paying extra AF for literally nothing.
Most of American Airlines fly can't use the Amex subscription anymore.
Whether one keeps this card has nothing to do with what AMEX offers in other countries.
I feel sorry for those poor folk but I'm out. One version of the card is enough,
Still better offer than in most other countries (as @Michael mentioned). The German AMEX Business Plat is an absolute dump. 700€ ($770) annual fee, only to get a 200€ sign up bonus, Priority Pass and barely anything else.
Strangely enough the personal version has a 650€ annual fee and the same sign up bonus, but additionally also comes with 200€ AMEX travel voucher and another 200€ one for SIXT ride.
LMAO way ahead of Chase my butt. Amex cards getting crappier and charging more.
The last several times I tried to use the gogo passes the WiFi on the plane did not accept them so no loss. Still a keeper as the Fedex offer they have every year around this time we always max out the $1k rebate. So it pays for itself. The 1.5 mr points is huge second only to the blue cash rate. Combined with 35% back pay with points makes for a good return. All other perks are gravy.
I've found GoGo to be somewhat unreliable, slow, and not really a very good product so I wouldn't miss this perk much.
This sucks. This was a very good benefit.
Given this downgrade - and the 3 hour limit to Amex lounges... I will strongly consider downgrading/canceling this card. There are better options out there.
Australian version of Business Platinum earns much fewer points (1.1 miles per AUD maximum), have less benefits, and we’re still paying $1200 (pretty much double the annual fee compared to US version) for that card!!
If it was a true $200 uber credit that would be one thing. But its allocated monthly no? so if I have 2 $50 rides to/from the airport on a particular trip, not much help.
The GoGo stuff is one of the few benefits we definitely used. So, a definite loss.
If you drop the Amex Business card does it impact your credit rating since it doesn’t have a specific credit limit (eg, available credit %)? Can you change a Biz card to a personal Platinum card?
There are few good reasons to still be an AMEX customer
I still find value in the Business Platinum for its 35% rebate for paid-with-points business class tickets. Not every route on the dates I need is possible or sensible via a points transfer, and the net 1.54% return makes it equivalent to Sapphire Reserve.
I usually fly United, so I won't miss the Gogo *that* much, since they don't use it (and when they do it's United branded and passes don't work), but it was nice to have when I flew Delta or AA.
You can still get 10 free gogo passes a year if you have the US Bank Altitude reserve card. It is looking better and better compared to the AMEX products. Just saying....
I have been looking for an excuse to drop this and have a slot to get the Personal Platinum.
Seems like a good time.
I hope the 100K MR will pop up again soon
The real value in AMex Biz Plat is using the Amex Centurion and DL lounges. Figure $50 / per visit, if you visit more than 11 times a year, you are in for value. Fortunately, I’ve hit the lounges 27 times this year and probably drank $1k worth in food & drink this year.
The 5 times MR points on airfare generate 100k in points a year, enough for biz class air on Singapore Airlines ( LAX-SIN) $3,6K in value.
Any other benefit is nominal.
I was platinum for 20 years and just downgraded. I find both the personal and business versions to be quite unrewarding.
They are pushing this card pretty hard, I got a mailer to upgrade from my biz gold and get a 50k MR bonus for 10k in spend.
I downgraded my biz platinum card last year when they brought on the wework benefit. I'm glad I got out when I did. This card has zero value in comparison to other high end cards.